Olive and other tiny ladles

 

I have had requests for more olive ladles - so over the last couple of days I have spent time in the workshop to make seven ladles - 3 olives, 3 tiny and 1 unique tiny one. The opening photo is of the seven on a black piece of ply on the workshop bench.

I often share some process photos - so some follow. Couple of the marked up metal silver-plated placemat; couple of the formed ladle bowls; and a few odds and ends.

To round things off there are a few more photos of the finished ladles on the black ply.

The olive and tiny ladles will make there way into the Culinary Metal category in my online shop.

Functional pieces - ladles

 

Given I only had one small (4.5 cm) ladle left in my stock I decided to make a few more ladles of different sizes. To start with I have made 4 medium (6-7.5 cm) sized ladles - see opening photo.

The ladles are made from silver-plated brass cut from salvaged placemats and serving trays. I start by cutting circles of metal; then roughly forming them into shallow bowls; then planishing the back of the bowls to set the finished shape; and finally grinding and polishing them. See some bowl form process photos follow.

Once the bowl forms are finished, handles are made out of brass rod or hardened thick brass wire; and the formed handles are drilled in preparation for riveting the handles to the bowl forms. See some process photos below.

The ladles are then given a final grind and polish to create the shiny functional pieces shown in the opening and closing photos of this blog post.

Shiny things!!!!

 

Yes the above photo seems similar to one from a week ago; but I can assure you that many steps have been completed to take the rough products to this finished, polished shiny stage. 

The objects have had the back of their bowl sections planished on metal stakes; all edges ground and leaves and bowls shaped; and the pieces given three polishing - two by wheel (one brass wire wheel) and one by hand. They are now ready for their swing tags and market.

Some process photos follow.

A couple of the finished pieces.

In all there are 18 objects - half most likely will go to Scotland and half to Maleny Additions.

Finally a bit of workshop time

 

I think it has been about two months since I have been able to get into the workshop to hammer and grind some metal because of infected wounds and virus. As you can see from the opening photo I progressed some product (leafspons, tea caddy spoons and leaf pate or spreading knives).

When finished some of these might go to a local shop and some might head to Scotland to be part of our local pop-up exhibition. 

I reacquainted myself with tools and forms I made and use for making product including my thumb print groove in a piece of hardwood. I had to grind a few of the tools to remove rust that had built up from lack of use and our recent wet weather.

A few more process photos follow.

Though I felt a bit weary after the session in the workshop it was great to be back on the tools again. I might get back to finish these pieces over the next couple of days.

Leaf form knives to spread stuff with

 

I used to refer to the leaf form knives in this blog as 'leaf pate knives'; but Fiona said folk might use them for all sorts of spreading tasks - butter, soft cheese, dips etc as well as pate - so they are now know as 'leaf spreading knives'. The spreading section of the knives is not sharp - not for cutting cheese  or sausage!!!

I have made 20 knives - with a bit of variety - some with leaf veins, some totally plain, some with ornate backs and some with ornate fronts - really mixing it up as you will see from the photo above and the ones below. The opening photo shows that a number of vintage silver-plate trays were cut up for these knives. 

A few process photos to show that there is a process and the shiny pieces do start out looking pretty grungy.

Different gloves for different tasks.

The last photo was taken when I was packing the 20 pieces up - though each is unique they do generally pack together well.

Press and product

 

The press is Deckled Edge Press or course; and the product is more functional metal work.

Over the weekend we have held a 'beginning of the financial year stocktake sale' - selling or moving on stuff that during our annual reviewing June we deemed to be excess to requirements'. The photos above and below are of the setting up for the sale.

Earlier in the week I managed to complete and deliver some Tea Caddy Leaf-spoons to Maleny Additions - some went into our physical  Deckled Edge Press studio shop as well.

I have a couple more stashes of functional objects to make and then I will be back into projects.